The whole shelf
All free summaries — page 105
5,112 public-domain books, summarised. Page 105 of 107.
Essays in Zen Buddhism
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
Beyond mere philosophy or quiet meditation lies an immediate, transformative experience of truth that shatters conceptual dualism and awakens the mind to its own original nature.
Figures of speech
W. C. (Wilbur C.) Tuttle
Dobie Dalton is a self-proclaimed genius, a world-class detective, and an aspiring actor who finds himself perpetually thwarted by the simple reality that he is, in fact, none of these things. Through a series of increasingly frantic letters to his distant friend Hank, Dobie chronicles his attempts to reclaim his…
The Bride of Lammermoor
Walter Scott
A dark Scottish valley frames a tragic feud between an impoverished heir and the powerful family who seized his ancestral land.
The Builders: A Story and Study of Masonry
Joseph Fort Newton
Ancient symbols and operational traditions unite to reveal how humanity continuously rebuilds its spiritual house through brotherhood, moral rectitude, and an unwavering faith in life after death.
The History of England, from the Accession of James II
Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron
A nation risks losing its constitutional liberties to absolute rule, only for an unstable balance of political ambition, religious zeal, and judicial overreach to precipitate a total transformation of its government.
The Trial of Oscar Wilde, from the Shorthand Reports
Charles Grolleau
A high-stakes libel suit collapses into a devastating criminal trial, exposing the hidden subcultures and bitter enmities of Victorian London.
A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 6
François Guizot
The sun never sets on Versailles without someone paying for the light, yet even absolute kings must eventually hand their kingdom over to children, ministers, and mobs.
The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Grecians (Vol. 1 of 6)
Charles Rollin
A sweeping survey of the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds, this work balances meticulous geographical reporting, religious analysis, and military chronicle to chart how early civilizations rose, governed, and ultimately fell.
A master of craft
W. W. (William Wymark) Jacobs
A slippery river captain fakes his own death to dodge complicated engagements, only to discover that the women and crew he left behind are far more adept at navigating life's currents than he ever anticipated.
Christopher Columbus and the New World of His Discovery
Filson Young
Driven by an absolute faith in land across the dark ocean, a humble mariner secures royal backing, survives perilous voyages into the unknown, and dies locked in a bitter struggle to claim his promised reward.
Eugenie Grandet
Honoré de Balzac
In a dreary house in Saumur, a miser’s devotion to gold crushes the spirits of those around him, turning his innocent daughter's quiet devotion into a life of tragic, solitary grace.
Henry D. Thoreau
F. B. (Franklin Benjamin) Sanborn
A quiet, unyielding life takes root in the Massachusetts woods, measuring the universe not by world travel, but by the slow growth of local grapes and the deep silence of Walden Pond.
Major Barbara
Bernard Shaw
Poverty starves the human soul, but can the profits of total destruction purchase its true salvation?
Needlework As Art
Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess
A scholarly yet deeply felt vindication of textile needlework, arguing that stitchery is not mere domestic craft but a vital, fine art carrying human history.
Six Years in the Prisons of England
Unknown
To enter the nineteenth-century British penal system was to step into a hidden, highly calculated machine designed to strip a man of his independence. This extraordinary, candid memoir reveals the inner workings of English prisons through the eyes of an educated insider who observed every detail of his six-year…
The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family
William Makepeace Thackeray
A warm-hearted Indian Army veteran returns to England to secure his artist son’s happiness, only to see their fortunes devoured by aristocratic snobbery and financial ruin.
A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes
Charles Elmé Francatelli
A manual of practical culinary thrift, showing how low-cost ingredients, proper technique, and thoughtful preparation transform modest domestic budgets into nourishing, comforting meals.
Cathedrals of Spain
John A. (John Allyne) Gade
Across dusty Castilian plains and sun-drenched Andalusian valleys, Spain’s great stone sanctuaries rise as physical monuments to a nation's warring, devout, and complex soul.
Hume: (English Men of Letters Series)
Thomas Henry Huxley
Stripping away philosophical pretension, this work grounds human knowledge, morals, and social order firmly in natural instinct, habit, and physical experience.
Life of Charles Dickens
Marzials, Frank T. (Frank Thomas), Sir
A child of the London slums and debtors' prisons rises to become the undisputed monarch of Victorian literature through boundless energy, keen observation, and an unmatched capacity for human empathy.
Nil Darpan
Dinabandhu Mitra
When a powerful foreign industry turns peaceful peasant farmers into impoverished serfs, one courageous family risks everything to stand between their community and total ruin.
The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Volume 01: Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English
Unknown
A vast, multi-form showcase of German literary genius traces the evolution of human striving, moral duty, and artistic transformation across lyric poetry, classic narrative, and philosophical drama.
Key to palmistry
Louis Williams
The lines of the palm and the shape of the fingers reveal the inner workings of the human mind, mapping thought, action, and destiny directly onto the flesh.
The Conjure Woman
Charles W. (Charles Waddell) Chesnutt
An enslaved storyteller uses tales of hoodoo and transformation to quietly outwit a Northern white landowner seeking to buy up post-Civil War North Carolina property.
At the Earth's Core
Edgar Rice Burroughs
A reckless trip through the crust of the earth lands two men in a primeval subterranean world of reptilian overlords and savage tribes.
Short stories from Life: The 81 prize stories in "Life's" Shortest Story Contest
Unknown
Desperate lovers, scheming dye merchants, weary soldiers, and silver-tongued gamblers cross paths in a collection where every word must earn its keep.
Spontaneous Activity in Education
Maria Montessori
A radical call to free the human spirit by reshaping the way we educate children, this volume argues that true intellectual and moral growth begins with self-directed activity.
The Shakespeare Story-Book
William Shakespeare
Two lovers run into a dark wood to escape a harsh father, unaware that fairies and actors are waiting to twist their lives into sweet, hilarious chaos.
A Letter Book: Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing
George Saintsbury
A private letter is a delicate, living thing—part conversation, part portrait, and entirely human. This anthology traces how five centuries of writers turned personal correspondence into an enduring art form.
George Washington's Rules of Civility: Traced to their Sources and Restored by Moncure D. Conway
George Washington
A fourteen-year-old schoolboy copies out 110 handwritten maxims on decorum, creating a foundational blueprint for self-discipline, social harmony, and American leadership.
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare
Two young lovers from feuding families fall swiftly into a secret devotion that defies their world's entrenched hatred, only to be crushed by circumstance, misunderstanding, and bad timing.
Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
Unknown
Human existence is a vast, unorganized museum of the peculiar, where medieval punishment devices sit side by side with exploding mountains, extraordinary weight-loss diets, and spiders that dance to the harp.
The Song of Roland
C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Scott-Moncrieff
A doomed rear-guard stands against an overwhelming force in the mountain passes of Spain, betrayed by one of their own.
The Thirty Years War
Friedrich Schiller
A fragile religious peace crumbles into a relentless European war, where grand ambitions, shifting alliances, and brilliant generals drag a continent through three decades of destruction.
The Way of All Flesh
Samuel Butler
A sharp, satirical look at the stifling grip of Victorian family life and the slow, painful work of freeing oneself from it.
Typhoon
Joseph Conrad
A literal-minded captain drives a sea-damaged steamer straight into the eye of a lethal gale, untroubled by any imagination of disaster.
Virginibus Puerisque, and Other Papers
Robert Louis Stevenson
Youth measures life by distant horizons, but true wisdom lies in settling into the present hour with an open, inquiring heart.
Zetetic astronomy: Earth not a globe!: An experimental inquiry into the true figure of the earth etc
Parallax
A radical alternative to conventional cosmology claims that observation and literal Scripture prove the world is a stationary, flat plane floating upon great waters, surrounded by secondary celestial bodies moving closely above it.
Baden-Powell of Mafeking
J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher
An energetic, adaptable officer keeps his head, his humor, and his duty intact through bush tracking, colonial expeditions, and seven months under siege.
Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases: A Practical Handbook Of Pertinent Expressions, Striking Similes, Literary, Commercial, Conversational, And Oratorical Terms, For The Embellishment Of Speech And Literature, And The Improvement Of The Vocabulary Of Those Persons Who Read, Write, And Speak English
Grenville Kleiser
Precision in expression is the cornerstone of clear thinking, yet writers and speakers often find themselves trapped in repetitive phrasing or searching blindly for the exact turn of phrase to match an elusive idea. Grenville Kleiser addresses this universal linguistic friction by collecting, categorizing, and…
For the Term of His Natural Life
Marcus Andrew Hislop Clarke
A innocent man is wrongfully condemned to the British penal settlements of Australia, enduring decades of systemic brutality, altered identities, and the relentless cruelty of the iron-fisted officer who steals his identity and his happiness.
London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. 2
Henry Mayhew
The standard of living in Victorian London relies on a vast, hidden underclass whose daily labor turns garbage, night-soil, and street rubbish into raw material for the city’s survival.
Maha-bharata: The Epic of Ancient India Condensed into English Verse
Romesh Chunder Dutt
A fallen kingdom's rightful heirs endure exile, fiery trials, and a devastating civil war to reclaim their crown and restore righteousness to a broken world.
Minnie's Pet Parrot
Madeline Leslie
A sickly child's home fills with creatures, but none rivals the family parrot, whose razor-sharp mimicry exposes human foibles, repels thieves, and draws out a treasury of extraordinary bird lore.
The Witness of the Stars
E. W. (Ethelbert William) Bullinger
Night sky watchers who look up at the constellations are gazing upon an ancient, sky-wide prophetic record that mirrors the core promises of Biblical scripture.
Three-Base Benson
Ralph Henry Barbour
An awkward mountain boy arrives at an elite boarding school in clothes that do not fit, carrying an impossible knack for hitting three-base hits and an unyielding sense of honor.
Women and the Alphabet: A Series of Essays
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Barring women from full participation in public life is not a law of nature, but an obsolete habit waiting to be broken.
Life of Heber C. Kimball, an apostle
Orson F. (Orson Ferguson) Whitney
Driven by deep religious conviction and a rugged, intuitive nature, a blacksmith-turned-apostle braves violent mobs, foreign mission fields, and the treacherous Western frontier to help build a new religious society.